Do falls experienced during in-patient stroke rehabilitation affect length of stay, functional status, and discharge destination?

I was one of those fallers during my hospital stay, Got the dreaded yellow wrist band for that. My first night in the hospital proper, not the first three days spent in the ER and step-down units, I woke up in the middle of the night needing to go pee. I swung my legs over the side, took one step and fell over. Probably didn't help that my doctor never told me I had a stroke and what my deficits were. I'm not sure I even knew I was in a hospital at that point. That got me a catheter, wondered why they didn't install one immediately.
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0003999315015014

• Jennifer S. Wong, BSc^{1, 2, ,} ,
• Dina Brooks, PhD^{1, 2, 3, 4},
• Avril Mansfield, PhD^{1, 2, 3, 4}

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doi:10.1016/j.apmr.2015.12.005

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Abstract

Objective

To compare length of stay, functional status, and discharge destination between individuals who fell during in-patient stroke rehabilitation and those who did not fall. We hypothesized that individuals who fell would have poorer recovery compared to those who did not fall.

Design

Retrospective cohort study.

Setting

Rehabilitation hospital.

Participants

106 individuals who fell during in-patient stroke rehabilitation (‘fallers’; mean age=67.8 years, SD =12.9; mean time post-stroke=26.4 days, SD=28.3) were matched to 106 individuals who did not fall (‘non-fallers’; mean age=67.3 years, SD=13.6; mean time post-stroke=21.9 days, SD=28.8) on age and functional status.

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main outcome measures

Total length of stay, Functional Independence Measure (FIM) assessed at discharge, and discharge destination.

Results

The mean length of stay for fallers was 11 days longer than non-fallers (p=0.0017). Non-fallers and fallers did not differ on discharge total FIM scores (p=0.19), and both groups were discharged home after in-patient rehabilitation (non-fallers: 77%; fallers: 74%; p=0.52)

Conclusions

This study suggests that falls experienced during in-patient stroke rehabilitation may have contributed to a longer length of stay; however, falls did not impact discharge functional status or discharge destination.